We have all experienced quite a tumultuous past few years. Whether we’ve lost a job, a house or watched others lose theirs, it has been hard not to notice that many things have changed or are not what they were.

I recently saw the movie, “The Company Men”. This really brought home to me the difficulties that many people have experienced since 2008. It’s one thing to read that over 400,000 people lost their jobs this week. However, these numbers seem to lose their meaning after awhile or they seem like an improvement to the 500,000 or more who were losing their jobs previously. We do not really stop and think about what this means for these people- how their lives have changed and how what they have counted on has suddenly disappeared. Often they begin to experience a downward spiral where they may lose their home, their car, and many other things they held dear.

For some it is an opportunity to appreciate what they do have- their loved ones, their health, their ability to reinvent themselves in a new and exciting way. For others, it is an experience from which they are unable to recover. Some families are able to pull together, to support each other, and to help each other to feel loved and valuable. Other families are torn apart. Some are able to make the adjustment, while others are not.

Life is an ebb and flow. Often I think it is like a pendulum. We swing one way and then another. We are all on a journey that winds and turns and has its ups and downs. Often what seems like a tragedy is really an opportunity disguised as a loss. Vince Lombardi, one of the most successful coaches in football history said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up”. He also stated, “The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall”. He lived his beliefs and was the driving force of the Green Bay Packers from 1959-1967. With his leadership, they won five National Football League championships.

It is this type of drive and determination that helps us to achieve our goals. It is also in understanding that people have value beyond what they do or where they live that makes all of the difference. Several years ago my father told me that he thought it was important for people to live up to their potential. I agree. I hope you will be all that you are capable of being and that no matter how many times you are knocked down that you will always get back up.